At 9:56 PM -0400 5/20/97, Jonathan Robie wrote:
> [examples omitted since I'm not talking about them]
>
>So does the "desiderative imperfect" exist at all? If so, how can I
>distinguish it from a normal imperfect? It seems plausible that a
>desiderative imperfect *could* exist in a language, since German can use
>"wuenschte" in a similar way (Denn ich wčnschte, als ein Verfluchter selber
>fern von Christus zu sein zum Besten meiner Brčder...), but how good is the
>evidence for a desiderative imperfect in Greek?

But isn't that German "wuenschte/wčnschte" a subjunctive rather than an
indicative? i.e., isn't it "I would/might wish" rather than "I was wishing"?

The imperfect and the aorist were both used in classical Attic in a
desiderative sense to express unfulfillable wishes--but always with AN,
which is not used with these imperfects in the NT cited by Jonathan. Some
might call this potential, but I think it really is desiderative. Some
might also call it the result clause/apodosis in an elliptical
counterfactual construction with a suppressed protasis, which may be true
but would be hard to demonstrate convincingly. At any rate, I think these
imperfects are actually reflexes of the older imperect and aorist with AN
to express unfulfillable wishes:

TAUTA AN EPRATTON "I would be performing these acts"
TAUTA AN EPRAXA "I would have performed these acts"